1. Field of Invention
This invention is directed to a method and apparatus for provisioning of service orders by competitive local exchange carriers, and more particularly to a method and apparatus which allows order initiators such as sales agents to process new customers for a variety of telephone plans and telephone companies.
2. Background
It is known in the art to provide local phone service to telephone end users utilizing competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC). These local phone companies provide connection between the customer and the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC). The ILEC is the traditional regional phone company and provides the traditional telephone service, including long distance in some cases. By virtue of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the CLEC is authorized to resell the services of the ILEC to telephone end users. The CLEC becomes the de facto sales force for the ILEC as well as the virtual local phone company as it appears to the consumer.
As a result of government regulation, at both the federal and state levels, as well as a variety of service classes and telephone line features which can be offered (one or more of call waiting, caller ID, missed call callback, voice mail, and the like), each individual ILEC may offer a number of different service classes as a function of telephone line features offered by the ILEC in particular geographic areas, as well as a function of governmental ILEC regulation and technological capabilities. Accordingly, the various service classes and telephone line features offered by ILECs may not only be different between competitive ILECs, but an individual ILEC may offer a variety of service classes and features as a function of price, or customer location within the region. ILECs have developed a number of proprietary codes to identify each of their various service classes and telephone line features. Furthermore, state regulation may cause ILECs and therefore CLECs to offer different plans at different pricing to different customers even if located in the same geographic or demographic sales area.
Many CLECs utilize agents to enlist customers. The agents do the service order taking (obtaining of the information and providing the information regarding a type of service to the CLEC) for each customer. These orders are relayed to the CLEC so that an order may be initiated. For this, the agent receives a commission. The commission is a function of at least one of the type of plan, the policy of the CLEC, the number of plans sold by the agent (either in quantity or dollar value) or any other contractual arrangement between the agent and the CLEC. For example, the commission may be a percentage of the sale price of the contract, or may be a flat fee.
The prior art system was satisfactory, however, it suffered from the disadvantage that the process was complex and susceptible to human error. The provisioning of service orders is a cumbersome process in which the order initiator, usually an agent or employee of the CLEC, must be cognizant of a myriad of business rules, USOC codes, ILEC service class codes, service block codes and feature block codes. Therefore, even if the order initiator has extensive training, given the numerous ordering rules, the opportunity for human error is immense.
Furthermore, the prior art provisioning system requires that the order initiator, reenter customer name and address data from the CLEC billing engine or CRM software to an ILEC, enabling transcription errors. This factor is further compounded by the multiple ILECs for which the CLEC might be a reseller. Each ILEC has discrete and varying ordering system interfaces which the CLECs must use to provision orders.
The sales agents are often small neighborhood shops, having employees unsophisticated with CLEC or ILEC operations. These agents typically place orders with CLECs by telephoning a CLEC customer service representative and verbally conveying the order information, including customer name and address and plan type. This information must then be reentered into the ILEC provisioning system by the CLEC including providing the proper ILEC codes.
In many cases, the customers referred by agents are prepaying for service. Given the prepayment status of the end customer, the agent takes payment directly from the customer and then telephones a CLEC customer service representative to advise of the payment. At a later date, the CLEC will then collect the payment from the agent via mail or physical cash collection. As a result, there are delays in cash flow as well as transcription errors in posting and collection.
Accordingly, a system and method for overcoming the shortcomings of the prior art is desired.